What does it mean to get drunk

In Chinese culture, there are many idioms that express another meaning, so some people who don’t know much about Chinese culture don’t quite understand the meaning of these idioms. I believe that you often hear people say "drunk after drinking" at the dinner table, and many people don’t know what it means. Because alcohol has a certain alcohol content, drinking too much can make people unconscious. Next, I will give you a detailed introduction to what it means to get drunk.

As the saying goes, "Good wine doesn't make you drunk." Wine that makes you drunk is not good wine. This is often the most intuitive way to identify whether a wine is good.

But in addition to tasting the wine yourself, is it possible to tell directly with your own eyes whether the wine is intoxicating? Check whether there is "oily substance" on the surface of the liquor. If there is oily substance, be careful when drinking it! Because this substance is the real culprit that causes "intoxication" - fusel oil.

What is fusel oil?

It often appears in an "oil" state, so it is named fusel oil. It is a general term for various alcohol substances and is an inevitable by-product of the winemaking process. Fusel oil is present in any liquor, but the content varies.

When the content is low, it is an integral part of the flavor of the liquor, bringing a special aroma without causing much harm to the human body.

2-Butanol brings a fresh fragrance; n-Butanol brings a jasmine scent; n-Amyl alcohol brings a creamy taste; and phenylethyl alcohol brings a rose scent.

But when its content is high, it can cause poisoning and anesthetic harm to the human body, causing congestion of the nervous system and dizziness.

So people often have this feeling: they have sobered up from the alcohol they drank the day before, but their head still hurts!

The reason is that fusel oil stays in the body longer than alcohol and is difficult to excrete. Although I was sober, the anesthetic effect of fusel oil had not yet dissipated...

Why does fusel oil float on the surface of wine?

In fact, most fusel oils cannot be detected by the naked eye. It is only found in low alcohol wines or in low winter temperatures.

Fusel oil is soluble in alcohol but insoluble in water and has a lower density than water. When the alcohol content is low or the temperature is low, it precipitates and floats on the surface of the wine and is discovered by us.

When you see oil floating on the water surface, it means the fusel oil content is already very high. It is recommended that you drink less of this kind of wine...

What kind of fusel oil has a high content?

Experts believe there are two types:

① Corn wine

The cheap alcohol most commonly found in various retail liquor stores often leads to drunkenness. The reason lies in the raw material it uses - corn.

As mentioned earlier, fusel oil is an inevitable by-product of the winemaking process and is related to the protein content in the raw materials.

Scientists have discovered through experiments that the fusel oil content in sorghum wine is low, the fusel oil content in grain wine is medium, and the fusel oil content in corn wine is seriously exceeded.

From this we can discover a phenomenon: the majority of low-end loose liquor on the market is corn liquor, which has a high yield, fast brewing and low cost. However, for the sake of profit and due to limited conditions, small workshops generally do not remove the endosperm from the corn, nor do they specifically filter to reduce the fusel oil content during the wine making process. Therefore, the fusel oil content in this kind of wine is very high and it is very easy to get drunk after drinking it.

High-quality liquor is mostly made from sorghum or five-grain grains. Regular manufacturers will specifically process the liquor to reduce the fusel oil content to prevent consumers from getting drunk and affecting the brand's reputation.

② Low-quality low-alcohol wine (tail wine and other late wine)

There is another kind of wine, which is sorghum wine but contains mostly "fusel oil" - a finished wine made from the late stage of the winery.

Winemakers often have a famous saying: "Cut off the head and tail", which means that the wine that flows out first and the wine that flows out last are of very poor quality and should be discarded!

The wine at the end of the winery mentioned in the previous article refers to the last wine to flow out.

This type of wine has a low alcohol content and a relatively high fusel oil content, and is generally discarded by wineries. But some businessmen, driven by profit, release these low-quality wines into the market.